One second, I was underground. Then I was here, in the middle of this strange meadow full of wildflowers. I step back, confused, and there is another flash and suddenly I’m back in the tunnel, bumping into Faladel.

“Briareth! Thank goodness we’ve found you!” He says, gripping my shoulders firmly and brushing his hair back from his worried face. “Wait, where did you come from? I’d swear you hadn’t been here a few seconds ago.”

“Well I wasn’t here.” I say, very intelligently. “I was…” I hesitate. “I don’t know exactly, somewhere else that’s for sure.”

Faladel looks nonplussed. “But how did you get from here to there?”

I grin wickedly, suddenly understanding what this all means. “I think I’ve found our portal, Faladel.”

“Briareth.” His face transforms into something that’s the closest I’ve seen to him being angry in a long time. “You found the portal, went through it and left us to worry about you for over an hour?! What were you thinking?”

I stare at him, baffled. He’s making no sense. Did a stone hit him on the head or something? “I was only gone for a few seconds.” I say in a soothing voice, trying to remember some of my old lessons in dealing with people with head injuries. “Really, it’s nothing to worry about. I promise next time I’ll take you with me.” I hesitate, Myrddin’s dejected face coming to mind for a brief instant. “The horses won’t be able to accompany us unfortunately.” I say, gently, “But I’m sure the Librarian will take very good care of them while we’re gone.”

Faladel laughs slightly, an edge of absolute bewilderment in it. “Briareth, you’ve been gone for over an hour. The sun set ages ago.” He gestures back towards the tunnel entrance. “What are you going on about, being gone only a few seconds?”

I follow his hands and realize that the light coming in wasn’t the sunlight that it had been. One of the floating hands is carrying a torch. Suddenly a shadow moves from behind the torchlight, and I see the Librarian poke his head in.

“Oh, you found him? Good!” He shouts down at us. Then he stares at me, and comes a bit closer. I flinch, his gaze seems to be boring right through me. “He’s got the other-world light about him, princling. I forgot about the time compression thing, but that would explain why he’s been gone so long. And why, for him, only a few seconds have passed.”

“Other world light?” Faladel asks, glancing at me again. “I don’t see anything?” The way he phrases it makes it sound more like a question than an observation.

“Well of course you don’t!” The Librarian’s silver eyes flash in the dimness, reminding me of their strange coloring. “Come on out now, I’ve got supper ready. Or if you feel up for it, you all can head through now. That would probably be better. You wouldn’t want too much time, after all, you won’t have much there as is if you wish to return to your regular lives.”

“It was still daylight over there.” I mutter, still trying to figure out the whole time dilation thing. “How was it still daylight?”

“You’re right.” Faladel decides for the both of us. “It’s probably best if we head out now. Briareth, are you ready?”

“Umm… yeah sure.” I say, not entirely sure what I agreed to but trusting in Faladel nonetheless.

“How did you get there?” He asks me, seriously. “Wait! I’ll go get our things.” He hurries out and swiftly returns, carrying both our packs that we had set down to work on digging out the tunnel. In the meantime, with the help of the blue hand with the torch, I find the stone again. When Faladel arrives, we both touch it, and suddenly are launched with a flash of white light into the meadow again.

I blink once more, adjusting my eyes to the sudden brightness. The wind is as chill as it was a few seconds ago. The sun is still up, high in the bright blue sky above us. Around us are wildflowers, as high as my knees. Bugs hum in contentment as they move through the soil below us and in between the flowers all around. Faladel is already kneeling over, plucking one, and studying it.

“I’ve seen this before.” He murmurs. “Cowslips,” He turns to another plant. “Yarrow.” He lists the names of a few others, common plants, ones I recognize easily, before finally turning to face me. “Are we sure this is truly another world?” He asks me, baffled.

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“Well…” I hesitate, not quite sure my answer will satisfy him. It doesn’t really satisfy me after all. “Technically, it’s just a world beyond our own. If ours is inside a spell, and the time dilation thing would suggest that is very true, this is the outside of that spell? At one point they would have been connected, so a lot of things would have remained the same I’d imagine.”

Faladel frowns, considering it. “But if everything was the same, inside and outside, why put up the spell in the first place?”

“Well that…” I trail off hesitating as I realize the full impact of his words “Is a good question.” I finalize, unable to think of anything else to say. Faladel gets back to his feet, and dusts off his pants.

“We should explore,” He says, looking around. “There has to be water around here somewhere, perhaps there are people too?”

It only takes us a few minutes though to ascertain that we are on a rather small island with no clear route off. The water all around us is salty, unfit to drink, and unlike the water from the lakes and streams in the Elf Territories. Unlike anything I’ve ever seen or heard of in the Dwarven Kingdom as well. But it stretches on for miles with no land in sight. And there certainly aren’t any trees on the tiny Island to build a boat with. In fact, the only reason that we hadn’t noticed we were surrounded by sea at first was because of the hills and small shrubs around the area we entered. Once we exit the depression in the earth, our situation only becomes more depressing.

“Is this the end of our adventure?” I ask Faladel glumly. “Should we head back and hope the Librarian stayed out overnight?”

“You can.” He hesitates. “I think I want to stay here a bit longer.”

I shrug, “Fine by me.” I cast a disappointed look around the Island. It feels like it’s mocking me with this dead end. Like it knows how much I long to explore this place, and delights in tormenting me with my inability. I sigh, and stumble around for a bit, trying to find our point of entry into this world.

“We really need to leave some sort of–” I am cut off mid sentence by another flash of bright white light, and then am blinded by the sudden darkness.

Blinking slowly, I realize it’s not quite complete darkness, there is a vague blue-ish light up ahead. I can barely make out the tunnel’s opening. Stumbling forward on the uneven floor, I bump my head on the low ceiling multiple times before making my way out into the pre-dawn light. I don’t need to spend more than a few seconds there. Myrddin, Ethiel, and the Librarian are all gone. The remains of a campfire linger, along with a note written in a familiar scratchy hand. “Good Luck” Are the only words on it though. Nothing useful. I sigh, looking around. I guess we’ll have to make our way back on our own then.

Suddenly I frown.

I was too sick to pay attention to where we were going earlier. Do I even know the way back? Hopefully, Faladel will know, because tracking two light footed horses on this rocky path will be near impossible.

I turn around, and walk back into the tunnel. This time, the bright flash doesn’t disturb me as much. I think I’m getting used to it. Faladel is staring at me strangely though. “How did you do that?” He asks, confused.

“Do what?”

“Well, just a moment ago you were walking away from me, and now you’re facing me without having turned around. Also, what were you saying about leaving something?”

“Faladel, I just went through the portal. I’ve been back in our world for a few minutes. The Librarian’s gone, it’s nearly dawn there now.” He stares at me. I stare back at him. Finally I break the silence. “That time dilation sure is something.”

“I wonder if we can replicate it somehow?” Faladel muses, already thinking about the uses and magic behind it no doubt. I’m stuck with the more practical concerns however, and take my blade to the flowers around me with a vigor, cutting them down in broad sweeping strikes.

“What are you doing?” Faladel asks, confusion evident as he watches me.

“Marking our entrance and exit. I don’t want to lose it again.”

“Oh, well.” He sits himself down on the hillside. “That makes sense I suppose. Although it won’t work if we plan on staying here for a while. The flowers will just grow back. Perhaps we should mark it more permanently? Find a stone or something?” He wraps his arms over his knees as he leans forward considering the problem. “We could go back into the tunnel and bring one out.”

“What do you mean stay here longer?” I ask, “We’ve done all we practically can, Faladel.”

“I don’t know.” Faladel sighs, and tilts his head to the side, hair sliding over his green tunic with the motion. “It just feels wrong to have traveled so far just to turn back without even staying the night here. It’s not like there’s anything threatening on this Island, surely we can stay the night?” I consider the problem for a few seconds, and then realize that I’m being terribly sensible and dismiss it entirely. I don’t want to be sensible, I want to be my normal spontaneous self!

“Of course we can stay!” I exclaim, grinning at the sudden excitement that fills me. “I wonder if the stars will be different out here, or the moon perhaps. If it can be daytime here, and night there, perhaps the moon phases are different as well?”

Faladel laughs, “Exactly, there’s still so much to see and do here, even if we are trapped on one island in a giant saltwater lake. I knew you’d understand, Briareth!”